Blueseed

Blueseed was a Silicon Valley-based startup company[5] and a seasteading venture to create a startup community located on a vessel stationed in international waters near the coast of Silicon Valley in the United States. The intended location (outside the territorial seas of the United States, 12 nautical miles (24 kilometers) from the coast of California, in the so-called "contiguous zone") would enable non-U.S. startup entrepreneurs to work on their ventures without the need for a US work visa (H1B), while living in proximity to Silicon Valley and using relatively easier to obtain business and tourism visas (B1/B2)[6] to travel to the mainland.

This article is about the startup community. For the manga series, see Blue Seed.
Blueseed Inc.
TypePrivate
GenreStartup incubator
FoundedJuly 31, 2011 (2011-07-31) (incorporated March 29, 2012 as Blueseed, Inc.)
Founder
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California
Key people
  • Dan Dascalescu (COO)
  • Dario Mutabdzija (President)[3]
  • Max Marty (Chairman of the Board of Directors)[4]
Number of employees
3
Websiteblueseed.com

The project received wide media coverage and the promise of funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel,[7] who also supports the Seasteading Institute, who ultimately did not invest in the seed round. Blueseed later obtained US$300,000 in seed funding,[8] Bitcoin investments, and $9M from an undisclosed investor,[9] and claimed plans to lease a ship for its platform.[10] The launch was planned for summer 2014,[11] assuming that $18M more would be raised.

Blueseed went on hold due to insufficient funding in 2013.[11][3]

History
Concept art of a Blueseed "hive"

Blueseed was co-founded in July 2011[1] by Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija, who had worked together at The Seasteading Institute as Directors of Business Strategy and Legal Strategy, respectively. Blueseed's CIO/CTO (later COO), Dan Dascalescu, who joined the company shortly after its incorporation, is also an ambassador for the Seasteading Institute.[3]

The stated motivations of the project included providing an entrepreneurial alternative to the Startup Visa Act[12] and creating "a vibrant workplace for innovative industries to bloom, unencumbered by onerous regulations on new technology-sector businesses".[13]

On November 30, 2011, venture capitalist Peter Thiel offered to lead Blueseed's seed financing round.[7] The number of startups that expressed interest in locating on Blueseed grew from 31 on November 14, 2011,[14] to 60 a month later,[15] to over 100 by February 2012,[16] 133 on May 7,[17] 194 as of May 9,[18] and 336 on December 13, 2012.[8]

In March 2013, Blueseed announced the project's launch cost to be $27M, of which $9M was reserved for an existing investor.[9]

On July 31, 2013, two years after its founding, Blueseed co-founder Marty announced that he was stepping down from his day-to-day activities at the company and taking the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dascalescu, the erstwhile CIO/CTO, became the COO of Blueseed, while Mutabdzija took the role of CEO.[2]

Blueseed originally estimated a launch timeframe of Q3 2013.[19] It revised its launch estimate to Q3-Q4 2014.[20][21]

The project was put on hold due to lack of funding.

Origins of the idea

Blueseed co-founder Marty claims that the idea of Blueseed came to him while on a Reason Cruise in February 2011.[22][23][24]

A Los Angeles Times article about Blueseed noted that another company called SeaCode, led by Roger Green and David Cook, had attempted something similar in the past but had to put the project aside because they were unable to raise enough money to launch.[25]

Logistics

Blueseed planned to either convert a cruise ship or remodel a barge[5] in order to provide living accommodations, coworking space, and entertainment facilities for approximately 1,000 customers[26] paying an average of USD 1500 in monthly rent[14] (ranging between $1200 and $3000, and combined with a small equity stake[27]). The vessel would be stationed 12 nautical miles from the coast of California, near the port of Half Moon Bay,[15] and would have a crew of 200-300.[27] The location was to be situated outside the territorial waters of the United States of America; the founders considered that it would thus not be subject to US immigration laws. Internet connectivity would have been provided via a point-to-point microwave link, submarine communications cable or a laser link.[28]

Legality
A map of Blueseed's planned sea platform (and two buoys for positioning) in relation to the California coast. Also shown on the map are Half Moon Bay (the closest port) and the Silicon Valley area ranging from San Francisco in the north to San Jose in the south. The thick white line is the boundary of the official territorial waters of the United States. The cusp is due to the presence of the Farallon Islands, over which the US exercises territorial control, located in the north-west part of the map.

The Blueseed ship planned to be stationed in the contiguous zone outside the territorial waters of the United States. The theory was that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would allow the ship to be present as long as it did not engage in the exploitation of natural resources, and exhibited no intent of infringing on the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the United States.[29]

Following the precedent set by the cruise shipping industry, the Blueseed ship would have flown the flag of an open registry country such as Marshall Islands or The Bahamas,[30] which would determine the de jure laws applying on board.

Businesses that are generally illegal in the United States, such as gambling or prostitution, would have been forbidden on the ship.[31]

Reception

Fox News anchor Melissa Francis called Blueseed a "genius idea".[32]

References
  1. Friedman, Patri (31 July 2011). "The Seasteading Institute – July 2011 Newsletter". The Seasteading Institute. Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  2. Marty, Max (2013-07-31). "Two years of Blueseed". Blueseed (blog). Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  3. "About Us". Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  4. "Board of Directors". Blueseed. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  5. Donald, Brooke (Dec 19, 2011). "CA startup sees entrepreneur-ship as visa solution". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  6. "B1/B2 and H-1B visa issuance graphs". Bureau of Consular Affairs. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  7. McCullagh, Declan (2011-11-30). "Peter Thiel floats cash to floating tech incubator". CNET. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  8. Banister, Cyan (2012-12-13). "Mike Maples Gets On Board Blueseed's Sea Platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2012-12-13.
  9. Asman, David (March 27, 2013). "A Floating Lab for High-Tech Startups". Fox Business. Archived from the original on March 31, 2013.
  10. Silverfarb, Bill (2 January 2013). "Community at sea proposed off Half Moon Bay". San Mateo Daily Journal. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  11. "Quick facts". Retrieved April 7, 2013.
  12. Anderson, Greg (3 November 2011). "Blueseed Finds International Waters The Answer To US Visa Problems". ArcticStartup. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2012. [...]other groups have come together to motivate congress to allow a "Startup Visa" that would enable entrepreneurs to legally live and start their own businesses in the United States. Unfortunately, since March 2011 when the Startup Visa Act was pushed into Congress, there has been no real progress on the proposed legislation.
  13. Fisher, Anthony L. (January 9, 2012). "Blueseed: The Googleplex of the Sea". Reason. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  14. Ramsinghani, Mahendra (14 November 2011). "To Skirt Visa Issue, Blueseed Wants To Build Immigrant Startups On International Waters". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2012. For now, Blueseed has attracted 31 start-ups with varying degrees of interest in this idea.
  15. Chatterjee, Rituparna (Dec 15, 2011). "US immigration: Silicon Valley start-up Blueseed vows freedom from visa to entrepreneurs". The Economic Times of India. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  16. Wiggin, Teke (Feb 7, 2012). "Blueseed: 'Startup Incubator' Could Sail Past Immigration Law". AOL Real Estate. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  17. Taylor, Chris. "Pirates Off Silicon Valley! 133 Startups to Live on This Rogue Boat [PICS]". Mashable. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  18. "Blueseed Survey for Startups - Public Summary Report". Blueseed. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  19. Apostolou, Natalie (30 November 2011). "PayPal founder helps steer super geek cruiser". The Register. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  20. Totade, Manasi (2012-10-26). "Silicon Valley expands -- off the coast of San Francisco on a ship!". The Online Economy: Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  21. Nielsen, Kelly (2012-05-25). "Offshore boat nurtures non-US tech startups". Springwise. Archived from the original on 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  22. Banister, Cyan (2011-11-10). "The Real Pirates of Silicon Valley". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  23. "Max Marty Pitch Video". Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  24. "The Stossel Show: Blueseed co-founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija". 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
  25. Guynn, Jessica (2013-03-20). "Foreign tech workers on a cruise ship? SeaCode was first to try". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
  26. Posner, Michael (Feb 24, 2012). "Floating city conceived as high-tech incubator". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  27. Price, Andrew. "Blueseed: A Floating Startup Incubator Off The California Coast". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  28. Garling, Caleb (December 13, 2011). "Startup Ducks Immigration Law With 'Googleplex of the Sea'". Wired. Archived from the original on December 13, 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  29. "TERRITORIAL SEA AND CONTIGUOUS ZONE". United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. United Nations. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  30. Riley, Sheila (2012-03-30). "Blueseed Is Floating Startup Incubator For Foreigners". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  31. Lee, Timothy (2011-11-28). "Startup hopes to hack the immigration system with a floating incubator".
  32. Francis, Melissa (Sep 6, 2012). "A Startup on the High Seas". Fox Business. Archived from the original on 2012-09-07.

37.4°N 122.8°W / 37.4; -122.8

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